APCAN - Burning Questions

Burning Questions from AP CAN Grant English/LA Vertical Team Training
on 11/26/07

What are vertical teams?
How do you prevent redundancies in content across grade levels?
How do you get people to let go of their “sacred cows”, e.g. the Butterfly Unit?
How do you fill the gaps – the skills that no one wants to teach?
What vocabulary and academic language should we all be using?
How do we help teachers unwrap the standards?
How can we dignify the teachers “back at the ranch” and give them the time that’s reasonable for meeting the grant goals?
With a full inclusion model, how do we differentiate instruction and still provide rigorous curriculum to meet the state/national standards?
How do we involve our colleagues who are not on the Vertical Team?
How do we take the work from the Vertical Team and apply it at specific grade levels across content areas?

Burning Questions from AP CAN Grant Math Vertical Team Training
on 11/2/07

How do you sustain and spread the Vertical Team process?
How do you create purpose and performance goals with a large group of people with varying personalities and schedules?
What would the other levels expect from other levels below and above?
What happens if there are gaps?
How do we get started?
How do we ensure continuity in the curriculum?
How do we guarantee that our work here is carried over in the classrooms K-12?
How do you get people interested for the right reasons?
How do we involve all the right people to participate on the Vertical Team?
Are we responsible for just our school or for the other feeder schools?